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The growth in access points for “legal services” is gaining unprecedented momentum. So what does this mean for the future? Could it spell the end of the road for some of the charity shops that have come to dominate many of our struggling high streets and shopping precincts? Will we see new entrants to the market, all offering legal services, taking over the leases for these premises?

It has been quite a couple of weeks. Far from taking a break for the summer, the imminent arrival of alternative business structures (albeit not quite as imminent as expected) has seen the legal market bubbling over. And we learnt that there are lessons to be found from the Vestal Virgins, no less.

OK, I exaggerated with that headline to get you in. And I know a lot of you are now reading because QualitySolicitors (QS) generates more response than pretty much any story going at the moment. In the wake of a light-hearted tweet I posted yesterday while on holiday in Cornwall about my first ever sighting of a QS branded office – QualitySolicitors Nalders in Newquay – I received a few grumbles about the amount of coverage Legal Futures is giving to QS. It led me to wonder why QS generates so much emotion in the profession.

QualitySolicitors’ tie-up with WHSmith goes live next week, with “Legal Access Points” going in 130 stores in the first wave, we can reveal – along with first sight of how they will look. Dozens more law firms are set to join the network this autumn, hand in hand with their LAPs in local branches of the retailer.

QualitySolicitors aims to be in nearly 1,000 locations across England and Wales by the end of the year as a result of expansion and its tie-up with WH Smith, chief executive Craig Holt has said. He revealed that the retailer is receiving a flat rental fee and no referral fees.